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maternity

Grace Tan
In Family + Children Portraits, International, Life, Musings, Portraits, , Running a Business

Being a working mom

Ever since I delivered baby Krysta mid December, I have discovered the joys of motherhood. Everyday, my heart swells with even more love for this cute little baby of mine, especially so when she looks adoringly into my eyes and coos in her baby language telling me all sorts of things that happened in that day. Six diaper changes, lots of good yummy milk, and recently… her first overseas trip to Krabi, at 2 months old! While I was out shooting, Alex, my husband, was the baby sitter to Krysta!

* Krysta’s newborn photos, when she was 14 days old. 

Though I have tried to stay away from work and enjoy my maternity leave, I realized I can’t ‘stay’ still… in fact, I didn’t really observe most of the confinement practices (to the horror of some people). By the first week of her birth, after the C-section, I was up and about, attending Christmas events and even brought her for a theatre production at church. While on maternity leave, I was still replying work emails, meeting up with potential clients, skyping, and blogging. I now completely understand how difficult it is for working moms to balance between working at home and taking care of a child. All I can say is… thank God for the help of my maid, and the pacifier!

Now that I have officially starting working and shooting, I hope that the transition is not too difficult. I am a little concerned about being away from her for some of my outstation shoot jobs, especially since I am still breastfeeding, but I guess I’ll jump over that hurdle once I get to it.

* Krysta looking really happy at getting her very first ang pau for Chinese New Year!

I know the blog has been silent for 2 weeks, so here’s a teaser image from the recent pre-wedding session at Krabi, Thailand for Nicholas and Lina… my first client after delivery! More to come later!

 

Grace Tan
In Casual Portraits, Life, Maternity, Musings, Parties & Events, Portraits

A Surprise Baby Shower!

Two weeks ago, I was completely surprised when I opened my front door to reveal a group of friends who had gathered for a surprise baby shower for me! I didn’t expect anything at all so it was really sweet of everyone to make so much effort to organize everything… from the beautiful decorations to the cute cupcakes and great food that was served (oh, and not to forget the gifts too!). I was told that half an hour before I arrived, they were busy cutting butterflies to stick onto straws! I was awed at how everything looked so perfect. But of course, the main thing was that I had a roomful of my closest friends to celebrate it with. Thank you so much everyone for making my baby shower so special, and for the friendship that we share. Really love all of you!

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Grace Tan
In Maternity, Portraits, Studio

Studio maternity portraits: Amanda & Ivan

Now that we have our own little convertible natural light + artificial light studio, I am really quite excited to do shoots here. It is definitely a challenge when you only have 4 walls to play with. Shooting in a studio gives you flexibility in the sense that it can be pouring outside but the shoot still carries on. It’s air-conditioned and comfortable. Tomorrow, I’ll be shooting my first boudoir studio shoot and I am looking forward to it!

Amanda and Ivan are no strangers to this blog… you might have seen her family photos here some time back. She’s a good friend of mine, and I was really pleased to do a portrait shoot for her. It’s been quite a while since I posted some maternity photos here. Incredibly, I know so many people who are pregnant this year and targeting to have a ‘dragon’ baby. So, in accordance to that theme, I’ll try to post a few more maternity shoots in this blog soon!

Amanda has since delivered a healthy and gorgeous baby girl that I have yet to meet. :) Congratulations to the both of you and enjoy parenthood!

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Grace Tan
In Life, Musings, Relationships

Moving to the next stage of life…

In some ways, I can’t believe it’s happened. We were open to it, but the odds were against us, and yet, God made it happen.

I’ll officially be able to wear a “I’m a mum t-shirt” this December 2012.


Our little one’s 2nd baby photo ever! Even if it was taken with an iPhone camera. 

As of today (11 weeks), the foetus is only 4.31cm long. I’ve learnt so much these past few weeks. Like, did you know, at just 10 weeks old (about 3cm), the little baby has developed all of his/her vital organs like the kidneys, intestines, brain, liver, and other things like fuzzy hair is beginning to grow on the skin – even tiny fingers, toes and NAILS are being formed! At only 3cm long too! Some grapes are longer than that. I am just amazed at how wonderful this fact is, and how God truly creates miracles.

Truthfully, when I discovered about the pregnancy, there was joy mixed with anxiety. I couldn’t help but think about all my clients whose weddings I am due to shoot for 2012. What will they think? Will they be really upset with me? I suppose there’s a part of me that wants to please people all the time, though I know that you can never make everyone happy. I began to feel a little sad for the weddings I knew I just couldn’t shoot. At the same time, I knew that I have to let my life run its course. I can’t just put my life on hold for the sake of my clients. If it doesn’t happen this year, it might be next year.

When I told my close friends and family members about the pregnancy, they started to worry, “You need to slow down, don’t do too many shoots. Do you know it’s easy to get a miscarriage in the first trimester?”

Call me ambitious, but I still hope to shoot till the end of November.

Of course, I don’t do it foolishly, so I’ve made some plans. With much fear and trembling, I emailed all my clients to tell them about the news. I made sure I assigned a 3rd photographer for each wedding, at no extra cost to my clients, as a backup in case I only have the energy for half a day’s shoot. I gave them the option to have my other photographers shoot their wedding instead, in case they prefer to not have a pregnant woman prancing around on their wedding day.

Amazingly, almost everyone reacted positively to my email. I am blessed with great clients. They were totally understanding (though some were a little upset, but they said that my safety is top priority).

So I guess I’ll learn to adapt and life goes on.

I am excited! And yes, I have started thinking of baby names (though I don’t know the gender of the child yet!). The next few months will be challenging and yet, exciting. All I can say right now is, Thank God I don’t have morning sickness!